Analysis of To The Moonbeam
Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)
I.
Moonbeam, leave the shadowy vale,
To bathe this burning brow.
Moonbeam, why art thou so pale,
As thou walkest o'er the dewy dale,
Where humble wild-flowers grow?
Is it to mimic me?
But that can never be;
For thine orb is bright,
And the clouds are light,
That at intervals shadow the star-studded night.
II.
Now all is deathy still on earth;
Nature’s tired frame reposes;
And, ere the golden morning’s birth
Its radiant hues discloses,
Flies forth its balmy breath.
But mine is the midnight of Death,
And Nature's morn
To my bosom forlorn
Brings but a gloomier night, implants a deadlier thorn.
III.
Wretch! Suppress the glare of madness
Struggling in thine haggard eye,
For the keenest throb of sadness,
Pale Despair's most sickening sigh,
Is but to mimic me;
And this must ever be,
When the twilight of care,
And the night of despair,
Seem in my breast but joys to the pangs that rankle there.
Scheme | ABXBBXCCDDD AEFEFGGHHH AFAFACCIII |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1 1101001 111101 111111 111100101 1101101 111101 111101 11111 00111 11100101101 1 1111111 101011 01010101 11001010 111101 1110111 0101 111001 11010010101001 1 10101110 10001101 10101110 1111001 111101 011101 10111 001101 1011111011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 882 |
Words | 162 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 11, 10, 10 |
Lines Amount | 31 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 233 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 53 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 26, 2023
- 49 sec read
- 245 Views
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